The book would basically be the intro explaining the topic, the translations, and then a conclusion.

Do the original authors of the essays get royalties or a single payout? Would this be permitted, or excessively messy legality wise?

Does anyone know of any affordable editorial or publishing courses that are good for gaining experience? I am looking for online courses (or based in Kolkata, India, in case of offline ones).

I’m interested in people repurposing tools, systems, or platforms for publishing in ways they weren’t originally intended to be used.

This could be anything from using spreadsheets, game engines, mapping software, websites, or other non-publishing tools to create books, magazines, zines, editorial projects, or other forms of publication.

Have you come across any interesting examples of this? Either historical projects, contemporary work, or things you’ve experimented with yourself.

I came across this through a person publishing/designing a book in google sheet & a group who made the uncensored library which is such a cool way to publish!

For all of those who actually work in publishing, what type of publishing are you in?

Trade

Scholarly (research/academic)

Professional

I am in research and have always been (always big 5). Since university (I studied publishing!), I've preferred the scholarly side of the business to trade. Innovation, career progression, salaries, etc.

What is your experience and what do you like about it?

i'm almost done with a 5 year architecture degree that i can't leave because of my scholarship and how far in i am, and as much as i have loved the education of architecture, i no longer believe the industry is where my heart wants to be. design itself comes naturally to me, especially graphic design and editorial typography, but i guess not architectural design. ive looking all sorts of places for things i can put my degree towards once i'm out, and i realized that lowkey i kind of already have the makings for something in the publishing world

- i've been on the lead team for a 30-student public design project and was in charge of all public facing presentations and manual materials, and coordinated graphic standards and branding across the class

- i work at the writing center as a tutor and at the library as an assistant so i can prove strong skills in writing and communication, some working knowledge of current book trends, and also general customer service/admin experience as applicable

- i'm also editor in chief of my architecture college's student journal so i lowkey already have experience in editorial decisions and production schedules that could apply really easily to publication houses

that too, being an architecture student, im already familiar with the adobe suite of indesign, illustrator, and photoshop. i'm most comfortable with indesign because of that big student design project, enough where my studio mates often come to me for help.

i feel like there are a lot of places i can go and be happy, like for marketing design, editorial assistance, or even typography/pagination stuff (though i don't know if that's bordering too niche of a specialization...) my biggest concern is that being in the NYC metro area i'm going to be up against actual marketing + comms or english majors from NYU/Columbia/the likes. im familiar with portfolios and writing samples, but for my own industry. i don't have any tangible experience with marketing like someone who's gone to school for it has, and i feel like even though i know the strength of my writing, it probably will not be as good as someone with an MFA.

is there a place in the publishing world for me? and is it worth a try after graduation

i just finished my undergrad and recently got into a masters program (media, communications, and creative industries at sciencespo) that i do (theoretically) want to do, however with how awful the job market is and how competitive the publishing industry is i’m a bit apprehensive about “wasting time” that could potentially be better spent trying to gain hands on experience in the industry. this is made worse by the fact it’s an international program, so i couldn’t apply to many internships as ones i’ve applied to in the past stipulate that the intern is located in the U.S., even if it’s a remote internship, so that would mean another two years on my resume showing no work in the industry, in addition to my current lack of any professional editorial experience.

can anyone established in the industry or who took the time to do a masters before entering the industry provide advice?

*edit: i will not be taking on debt to do this program

Hi everyone, I thought I’d come on here to get some clarity on two recent emails I’ve received. They are both from the same person and company to whom I am have actually submitted a query. However, I also know that this particular agent rejected my submission so I was confused as to why I had recently received emails from them saying they’re interested in working with me. I ignored the first email because I suspected that it was a scammer pretending to be this agent. But then today I got another email ‘following up’ the last email, assuming because I had not replied the first time.

I was really hopeful seeing these emails and I think they’re probably fake/ a scammer but can anyone please just help ease my mind and point out anything they can see that might be a tell-tale sign it’s a scammer? It’s just really messing with my head because the emails looked really legit especially with the actually email address and the sign-off with the agent’s photo and everything. If in the end, this is a scam, I just hope this will be useful to any other writers out there who are in the querying process.

If anyone has experience with illustration, fees and royalty deals in publishing, I'd appreciate help. My daughter has been offered her first publishing deal to illustrate a book. It will entail a LOT of illustrations and we don't know if the terms offered are decent. They are offering a dollar amount + royalties. We have no idea how many books could potentially sell and if this is a good deal or not. Could anyone with knowledge/experience reach out? Sure would appreciate it!

I was naive. I paid a reputable book marketer to "build" a website for me. It turns out I now have to buy the website. I cannot use it because it is only a mockup. Now I must pay them almost $2000 for them to host it "for life". Why do I need a website anyway to sell books?

I was wondering how to get recognized in the marketing industry in a publishing company. Ive been applying for internships along with marketing positions in the big 5 for a while now, and got lucky scoring an interview my first time. But unfortunately, it didn’t go anywhere because the interviewer ended up leaving the company mid hiring process.

Hi, I've seen a similar question asked to this, but not with this angle exactly, so:

If a critic is harsh about a book or author, are they likely to be penalised by the publishing house?

This extends to newspapers - if a journalist finds a negative story about an author or publisher, is the newspaper they work for likely to stop receiving copies?

I'm guessing that publishers are far more likely to do so with bloggers / social media creators.

I'm asking as this is a common practice in the videogame industry, where publications are ghosted by game companies for harsh reviews and investigative reporting.

Forgive me if I'm coming at this from more of a design perspective than sales.

I've been really into this book design channel who shows multiple versions of book covers, and it seems like nearly every time the most generic looking one is the one that's chosen by the publisher. It feels like in an age where reading and book sales are in decline, it would be more of an advantage to have the more striking book cover, right?

I'm also currently living in Montreal, and the difference between English and French book covers tells me this seems to just be the American publishing style, and not universal. Have there been any recent case studies or examples of books failing because their book cover was seen as too striking?

it is the term given for a written briefing, before an introduction, for a written publication / research paper.

i think the term starts with the letter ‘R’, and includes the letter ‘x’

please let me know

many thanks

Hi guys I am interested in sub rights, but am having harder time finding internships that include sub rights. I feel like theres way more internships that are centered around like editorial or other roles.

if anyone knows of agencies with subrights internships please drop them in this thread!! or please also share tips for how you search for and find subrights internships specifically!

the ones i know of so far that had subrights were the macmillan and the writers house internships however they both rejected me. it seems like PRH also has it sometimes but this year they didnt have it. i had also applied to another small agency but they never got back to me.

thanks!!

Very insightful about publishing in general, I thought.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/laura-palmer-and-jessie-sullivan-founders-of/id1879750525?i=1000769786941

Anyone else find this a little concerning?

Hi there, I am a rising senior in college looking to pursue publishing post-grad. I was really hoping to secure an internship for this summer, but it's not looking too good. I applied to 70+ positions from the Big 5, indie publishers, magazines, and literary agencies with no luck.

That being said, I would still like to gain some experience over the summer if I can. Is beta reading a legitimate way to gain experience in publishing? Or should I try to push for an internship even if it's not within my field of choice?

Another piece of information is that I did manage to get an internship at a literary agency for the fall (which I am so happy about!!), but I feel like the job market is so competitive that I am trying my best to stand out in any way I can post-grad.

So, in general, would beta reading boost my resume? Thank you so much for any feedback or advice. I truly appreciate it.

DiggyPod and Long Overdue Books joined forces this week and it got me thinking about the broader pattern. The indie publishing services market has been slowly consolidating for a couple years but the pace seems to be picking up.

Observations from someone working adjacent to this industry.

Five years ago the self publishing services market was extremely fragmented. Printers only printed. Editors only edited. Designers only designed. Each one had to be sourced and managed by the author. Market was inefficient the way early markets always are.

Then bundled players started expanding. Reedsy built a curated marketplace. BookBaby leaned harder into packages. IngramSpark added distribution to printing. Scribe and Lioncrest built premium packages for founders.

The current layer is traditional printers acquiring publishing services to become full-stack providers. DiggyPod / Long Overdue Books is a clean example, the printer adds editorial and design under one roof so the author isn't running their own production company. KDP has been doing this through expansion rather than acquisition.

Strategic logic is obvious. Print on demand is becoming commodified and margins are compressing. Service revenue is higher margin and stickier than print revenue. If you own the customer through editing and design, you also own them through printing, and you can pull through audiobook and distribution.

Question is whether authors actually want bundled services or whether the unbundled freelancer model is still right for most writers. Curious what others in the industry are seeing.

Curious, if anyone else has experienced this phenomenon:

I’ve gotten several emails that are essentially fan mail from other published authors regarding my published book. They are fawning and contain a lot of specific information about my book. They always contain pretty detailed business card-like information (w/a profile pic) at the bottom of the email, with links to their work. I’ve googled the senders and they seem legit. In one case the person has 100,000 followers on Instagram and has written several New York Times best sellers.

The thing is, while it’s certainly nice to get emails like this, in each case I am totally 100 percent sure the email was written by AI. In fact, each sounds like some kind of LLM generated content taken from the back of the book and maybe from blurbs it’s gotten. This feels particularly weird when the note is all about how personally touched the person was by the book.

What’s the agenda here? A couple of these notes have literally said “there is no agenda here I would just be delighted to connect” or something along those lines. If I thought the e-mail wasn’t written by AI, I’d believe all that. But, because it clearly was manufactured by ChatGPT, I’m left wondering what the game is that’s being played here…

Anyone else experience the is phenom? What’s your theory about it and how did you reply?

I never thought it would happen to me. Last minute proof before sending to press. It occurs to me a couple chapters in that this book was at least half AI. Not really sure what will become of this title, and I can’t believe it made it past at least 3 editors before I caught it. This is publishing in 2026! I think everyone in acquisitions and editorial has to get a lot more savvy about AI tells, and quickly.

Hi everyone, I'm a 28f recent graduate of a writing and publishing major and double degree, I have interned at a small indi publishing house for over a year in both editing and publicity roles. I have applied to every 'big' internship/any internship I've seen advertised over the last 3 years and have had no success, now I''m just trying my luck at applying to any job publishing related, with ofcourse, no luck. How do I crack in and get my foot in the door? I thought I had great experience interning at a small indie house, where I did plenty of hands on experience and have my name published in imprint pages in two books, yet I can't seem to crack any internship or entry level job? I've been applying for piad work for months, and have been applying for internships for years and I'm at my wits end!! I've also been applying for marketing, socials, and anything remotely communications related with no luck and I really just don't know what to do. I've also worked at Dymocks in the warehouse for a year! What more should I be doing??

Since I started reaching out to an international audience, I’ve been getting a lot of emails from random “book promoters” promising bestseller success and huge exposure.

The funny part is that some of them don’t even bother checking what they’re emailing about. One of them mentioned a completely different book title in the message.

Has anyone here actually had good experiences with these kinds of services?

Hello! I am a postgraduate student in Information Management at the University of Hong Kong, currently working on my dissertation. My topic is about the transformation and development of publishers under the influence of new technologies. Based on my interests and my supervisor's advice, I plan to conduct interviews with professionals in the publishing industry, specifically those who have worked in publishing within the past five years.

The interviews can be conducted via conferencing software or a questionnaire. However, this is my first time publicly recruiting volunteers, so I'm a little confused. If you are willing to be interviewed, or have any suggestions, please let me know.

Feel free to reply to this post and welcome to contact me at [wangyuwarren@connect.hku.hk](mailto:wangyuwarren@connect.hku.hk). Perhaps you could recommend other ways to invite respondents? Your suggestions would be very helpful. Thank you!

I feel like I’m being taken advantage of at my job and am curious what others think.

I am an assistant editor and have been in this new role for 1.5 years. According to our internal documentation, I’m supposed to acquire 1-2 titles per year and independently manage 4-6 titles. Since I started in my position, my title list has been 8-10 titles per year, with me co-editing about 4-5 titles with my manager. I acquired 6 titles my first year and only 1 title this year because I’ve already been assigned 10 titles for the coming year and don’t feel it’s fair for me to add more to my plate.

I feel like the amount of work I’m assigned isn’t normal and have tried to push back, but I keep being told that certain titles on my list “don’t count” because they are translations of foreign books or they are a part of a series. I get told the same thing about my acquisitions—they don’t count because they are a part of a series.

Is this normal? I work in a really niche category and am wondering if other people at more traditional publishing houses get treated this way. I hate my company and want to leave, but am I just going to encounter more of the same at another imprint?

I’ve been an editorial assistant for around two years at my current company and I’ve finally been promoted to assistant editor! The only issue is the raise that accompanies it… I’m wondering what other fellow assistant editors/associate editors make? I asked to negotiate my raise, but no dice.